MANHATTAN - Bill Snyder wants balance.

Tuesday

Nov 3, 2009 at 12:01 AMNov 3, 2009 at 5:00 PM

Arne Green

It's what he has built his Kansas State offenses on in the past, and nine games into his first season back in charge, it remains the goal.

"We have to become a more balanced football team," he said Tuesday with preparation under way for Saturday's 11:30 a.m. Big 12 North showdown with rival Kansas at Snyder Family Stadium. "I think that's important to our program, at least in my eyes."

But, the fact remains that the Wildcats' bread and butter so far has been a rushing attack that ranks third in the league and 32nd nationally with 182.3 yards a game. They're last in the conference in passing at 175 a game.

Quarterback Grant Gregory, for one, isn't afraid to admit it.

"Overall, I'd call us a run-first team," said Gregory, who since taking over as the starter for the conference opener has given the Wildcats another ground threat to go with workhorse running back Daniel Thomas. "That's what we want to do.

"We want to pound the football. We want to run the ball downhill and control the clock."

Perhaps so, but Snyder is looking for more. The fact that the Wildcats (5-4 overall, 3-2 Big 12) found some success through the air last week in a 42-30 loss at Oklahoma was a start.

"I think being able to throw it a little bit, we've moved in that direction," said Snyder, who saw his team pass for 215 yards and run for 149 against an OU defense that ranked sixth nationally. "However, you look at it and a substantial amount of that yardage came from pulling stuff out of the deck, and we threw up a couple of ducks and managed to get a completion here and there.

"(The passing game) hasn't sufficiently made the progress that I would like, but it is moving in that direction."

Ask the offensive linemen, and they're just fine with the run-first mentality.

"We want to be a tough football team and we want to be physical up front and pound the ball a little big and keep the ball in our possession and keep the other offenses of the field and throw it when we have to," said senior left tackle Nick Stringer.

Center Wade Weibert agreed.

"I definitely like being known as a run blocker," he said. "I like pass blocking as much as the next guy and it saves a little more energy when you can sit back and pass block a little bit, but it's a pride thing.

"When you know that you can run the ball and you can move it, that's definitely a big pride thing. You want to move that line of scrimmage."

But even Stringer conceded that adding a passing threat to the equation can only help in the long run.

"Why not help our offense out even more by throwing the ball even more and keeping (defenses) on their toes?" he said. "I think we need to keep running the ball effectively and when we throw the ball we need to protect the passer."

Gregory, who misfired on his first four passes of the season against Louisiana in week two, has steadily raised his completion percentage to 62.2 with three touchdowns and two interceptions. He's only averaging 83.1 yards per game, but has raised that to 133 over the past three.

"We're a pretty solid running team and we threw the ball better last wee than we have," he said.

Kansas coach Mark Mangino, a former K-State assistant under Snyder, said the Wildcats' offense has his former boss' fingerprints all over it.

"They are back to playing basic, principled football," Mangino said Tuesday. "They are not real flashy. They do not take a lot of chances.

"Their philosophy on offense is, 'You don't run a play unless you can block everybody.' "

According to Weibert, whether the Wildcats ran or threw last week was less important than the fact that they moved the ball against a stingy Oklahoma defense.

"This last weekend we were very balanced," he said. "I think we took a lot of steps forward in our passing game and our run game as far as moving some very good players.

"That's the best defensive front we've gone against so far, so it was a big confidence deal for us."

l Tickets available - K-State said Tuesday that 3,000 public sale tickets remained available for Saturday's game against Kansas.

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